Description: Duke Street looking south-eastwards towards its junction with Union Street. In the foreground the cobbled area with the chain link fencing fronts Bass's New Brewery of 1864, while the range of buildings on the opposite side of the road comprise Burton Infirmary, a voluntary hospital originally funded by contributions from the town's brewery magnates and by public subscription. It opened without ceremony in October 1869 but the facade seen here was the result of a later extension completed in 1899 (although just discernible on the frontage is the inscription 'FOUNDED 1870 & ENLARGED 1897'). The architect for the enlargement was Aston Webb (1849-1930), who some years afterwards (in 1913) was responsible for redesigning The Mall approach to and the main facade of Buckingham Palace in London. The extension increased the number of beds available in the Infirmary from 22 to 72.
Over ensuing decades the Infirmary underwent many more extensions and was styled latterly as Burton General Hospital. In 1990 a £34 million capital development scheme was commenced in order to concentrate all of Burton's hospital facilities on a site in Belvedere Road, on the west side of the town. Opened as Burton Hospital by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1995, the following year it was renamed Queen's Hospital.
By 2009 every single building visible in this view had disappeared, the Infirmary itself having been demolished in 1994 with the site redeveloped for housing.
Derby-based postcard publisher F W Scarratt took this photo but its serial number is unknown.